>In the Jadar river valley of western Serbia, communities are taking on metals and mining giant Rio Tinto to stop the construction of a lithium mine that threatens land and livelihoods across the region. Rio Tinto is a British-Australian corporation with joint headquarters in London, UK, and Melbourne, Australia. This article introduces the Jadar Project, the purposes and impacts of lithium mining, and Rio Tinto’s long legacy of destruction around the world.
>**WHAT IS THE JADAR PROJECT?**
>In the early 2000s, Rio Tinto discovered a mineral in Serbia’s Jadar valley which came to be known as “Jadarite“. It is a lithium sodium borosilicate mineral, referred to as lithium and borate in this article. So far, this is the only place on earth where this particular mineral has been found. Rio Tinto tout it as one of the most significant lithium deposits in the world and have been exploring its potential for the last 15 years. The proposed mine in Serbia is expected to supply an estimated 10% of the growing global lithium demand.
>The Jadar project is said to threaten more than 15,000 agricultural households in the town of Loznica and the Krupanj municipality, and the health and well-being of the communities of Loznica, Šabac and Valjevo. Households that sit directly on the proposed site of the mine face expropriation if they do not sell their land.
>The project is currently at the feasibility stage (obtaining permits, buying land, completing technical documentation), yet Rio Tinto has already committed $2.4 billion to the development. Construction is then projected to take four years. Rio Tinto predicts the mine has 40 years of exploitation.
>Yet locals aren’t letting it pass without a fight, taking their protests to Rio Tinto. Marija Alimpić, from the Protect Jadar and Rađevina association, says:
>“Resistance among the locals is growing, their anger is growing. We’re prepared to stop the construction of the mine, and we’re convinced that there will be no mine. It remains to be seen how long it will take for them to realise this.”
>**LITHIUM MINING AND THE ELECTRIC VEHICLE BOOM**
>Borates, which Rio Tinto plan to extract from the Jadarite, are used in detergents, cosmetics, fibreglass, mobile phones, solar panels and synthetic fertilisers (see Corporate Watch’s report on synthetic fertilisers and climate change here).
>Lithium is commonly used in batteries (pretty much anything mobile: phones, laptops, electric cars, e-scooters, bluetooth earbuds, etc.), lubricants, glasses and ceramics, military and medical technologies, pharmaceuticals, nuclear reactors and spacecraft.
>Demand for one lithium-reliant product however dwarfs that of all others: the electric car. With many people looking to reduce their impact on the environment, or not wanting to shell out for petrol, the electric vehicle (EV) industry is experiencing a boom, especially in Europe. Growth in EV subsidies and regulations on conventional vehicles have also boosted the market. Sales of electric vehicles increased by 43% in 2020, despite a drop in car sales overall. In Europe, the largest consumer has been Germany and the main beneficiaries have been Renault, Tesla and VW.
>Rio Tinto describes the Jadar deposit as being located “at the doorstep of the European automobile industry”; by 2030, the European Commission wants to place at least 30 million electric cars on Europe’s roads. In line with the European Union’s green transport agenda promoting electric vehicles, the Jadar region of Serbia, like others in Europe and the Americas, has effectively been marked a ‘sacrifice zone’ for the ‘green’ energy industry.
>**HOW ‘GREEN’ ARE LITHIUM BATTERIES?**
>The impacts of lithium mining is a major study in and of itself. Here we list just the tip of the iceberg of the industry’s impacts across the planet.
>Lithium extraction requires huge amounts of water, approximately 500,000 gallons per tonne of the mineral. More than half of the world’s lithium resources lie beneath the salt flats in the Andean regions of Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, one of the driest regions on Earth. In Chile’s Salar de Atacama, lithium and other mining activities consumed 65 percent of the region’s water, causing groundwater depletion, soil contamination and other forms of environmental degradation, forcing local communities to abandon ancestral settlements.
>Communities resisting the mine in Serbia fear for the mine’s tailings. These are the toxic residues of chemicals, rock and water left over from the mining processes. How tailings are dealt with accounts for many of the major pollution impacts of mining (learn more in London Mining Network’s explainer). The only tailings site publicly announced so far is in Radjevina, which would involve the destruction of 170 hectares of forest. The land is home to many protected species and nearby villages depend on its underground waters.
>In 2014, one hundred thousand cubic metres of tailings from an antimony mine were released into the Kostajnik River (a Jadar tributary) after a record rainfall triggered floods and landslides. The Serbian Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) found elevated levels of arsenic, lead, copper and zinc in local waterways. The government also reported that 360 hectares of soil were affected by heavy metal contamination. The Jadar valley is a floodplain, and after many decades of experience with pollution from mining in their communities, locals fear the new project would spell disaster.
>Chemical leakages from tailings sites can be fatal. In May 2016, masses of dead fish were found in the waters of Tibet’s Liqi River, contaminated by a toxic chemical leak from the Ganzizhou Rongda lithium mine run by Chinese company BYD. Cow and yak carcasses were also found floating downstream after having drunk contaminated water. The Free Tibet campaign produced a report on BYD and the effects of lithium extraction in Tibet.
>A number of toxic heavy metals are also needed as components of lithium batteries for electric cars and other consumer goods. One of these metals is cobalt. An investigation into child labour in Democratic Republic of Congo’s cobalt industry revealed that tens of thousands of children were employed in the mines – two years after the publication of a damning Amnesty Internetional report about human rights abuses in the cobalt trade. There are many health risks associated with cobalt mining, including serious lung disease.
>In Serbia, locals can already see the damage caused by Rio Tinto’s exploratory activities. The Protect Jadar and Rađevina association says the area is riddled with saline aquifiers, some of which will need to be drained to access the mineral. They claim that the many exploratory drill holes made by Rio Tinto have disturbed the underground waters. Grass and vegetation is no longer growing around the holes, and locals fear contamination of their drinking water. A well in the village of Gornje Nedeljice is reportedly no longer safe to drink from.
>Rio Tinto’s Jadar mine also threatens the important cultural heritage of the area. According to Marija Alimpić, more than 50 prehistoric archeological sites lie in the Jadar Valley, including a 3500 year-old necropolis which reportedly stands in the path of a second tailings waste area.
Change the words “Lithium mining company, Rio Tinto” into “chinese lithium mining company”, redditors will suddenly care.
easy reddit karma, come on man.
Decimating our ecological system while simultaneously marketing themselves for green energy.
Hopefully we find a scalable way to extract lithium from seawater.
It’s the same company that blew up aboriginal sites in Austalia.
B-but… electric cars are so green…
​
/s, for less inteligent readers
Who is financing the mine?
> The UK’s Rio Tinto plc holds a 100% interest in the Jadar Project. Rio Tinto is one of the biggest mining companies in the world. It is a ‘public’ company, meaning its shares can be bought and sold on the London Stock Exchange. As a result it has a huge number of shareholders, none of whom owns close to a majority of the company’s shares. The biggest single investor, holding 14% of Rio Tinto shares, is [Chinalco](https://www.chinalco.com.pe/en), a huge aluminium producing company owned by the Chinese state. Market databases show the next biggest shareholders are the giant investment funds Blackrock, Vanguard and Capital, with 11%, 8% and 7% respectively.
Is there anywhere that Rio Tinto isn’t being destructive?
They are also remarkably litigious and for a long while had a superinjunction in the UK that banned reporting on a series of court cases against them and a long series of frivilous lawsuits by them against journalists and activists.
ED Cases that in the US would be called SLAPP.
Pollution and corruption are at an all-time high and people just can’t do anything about it. I love my country and my people but I honestly don’t know what we can do at this point except leave and never look back.
They advertise themselves as they are going to save Serbia with green energy… In reality, Serbia gets destroyed and rich countries get green energy and electric cars…
How nice of Rio Tinto to bring their “international” mining business & practice to Europe as well… They spent so many years to perfect their methods in Bolivia, Australia and Katanga for example, it’s only right we get to see it in Europe as well. I’m sure there’s so much to learn from this company. /s
11 comments
>In the Jadar river valley of western Serbia, communities are taking on metals and mining giant Rio Tinto to stop the construction of a lithium mine that threatens land and livelihoods across the region. Rio Tinto is a British-Australian corporation with joint headquarters in London, UK, and Melbourne, Australia. This article introduces the Jadar Project, the purposes and impacts of lithium mining, and Rio Tinto’s long legacy of destruction around the world.
>**WHAT IS THE JADAR PROJECT?**
>In the early 2000s, Rio Tinto discovered a mineral in Serbia’s Jadar valley which came to be known as “Jadarite“. It is a lithium sodium borosilicate mineral, referred to as lithium and borate in this article. So far, this is the only place on earth where this particular mineral has been found. Rio Tinto tout it as one of the most significant lithium deposits in the world and have been exploring its potential for the last 15 years. The proposed mine in Serbia is expected to supply an estimated 10% of the growing global lithium demand.
>The Jadar project is said to threaten more than 15,000 agricultural households in the town of Loznica and the Krupanj municipality, and the health and well-being of the communities of Loznica, Šabac and Valjevo. Households that sit directly on the proposed site of the mine face expropriation if they do not sell their land.
>The project is currently at the feasibility stage (obtaining permits, buying land, completing technical documentation), yet Rio Tinto has already committed $2.4 billion to the development. Construction is then projected to take four years. Rio Tinto predicts the mine has 40 years of exploitation.
>Yet locals aren’t letting it pass without a fight, taking their protests to Rio Tinto. Marija Alimpić, from the Protect Jadar and Rađevina association, says:
>“Resistance among the locals is growing, their anger is growing. We’re prepared to stop the construction of the mine, and we’re convinced that there will be no mine. It remains to be seen how long it will take for them to realise this.”
>**LITHIUM MINING AND THE ELECTRIC VEHICLE BOOM**
>Borates, which Rio Tinto plan to extract from the Jadarite, are used in detergents, cosmetics, fibreglass, mobile phones, solar panels and synthetic fertilisers (see Corporate Watch’s report on synthetic fertilisers and climate change here).
>Lithium is commonly used in batteries (pretty much anything mobile: phones, laptops, electric cars, e-scooters, bluetooth earbuds, etc.), lubricants, glasses and ceramics, military and medical technologies, pharmaceuticals, nuclear reactors and spacecraft.
>Demand for one lithium-reliant product however dwarfs that of all others: the electric car. With many people looking to reduce their impact on the environment, or not wanting to shell out for petrol, the electric vehicle (EV) industry is experiencing a boom, especially in Europe. Growth in EV subsidies and regulations on conventional vehicles have also boosted the market. Sales of electric vehicles increased by 43% in 2020, despite a drop in car sales overall. In Europe, the largest consumer has been Germany and the main beneficiaries have been Renault, Tesla and VW.
>Rio Tinto describes the Jadar deposit as being located “at the doorstep of the European automobile industry”; by 2030, the European Commission wants to place at least 30 million electric cars on Europe’s roads. In line with the European Union’s green transport agenda promoting electric vehicles, the Jadar region of Serbia, like others in Europe and the Americas, has effectively been marked a ‘sacrifice zone’ for the ‘green’ energy industry.
>**HOW ‘GREEN’ ARE LITHIUM BATTERIES?**
>The impacts of lithium mining is a major study in and of itself. Here we list just the tip of the iceberg of the industry’s impacts across the planet.
>Lithium extraction requires huge amounts of water, approximately 500,000 gallons per tonne of the mineral. More than half of the world’s lithium resources lie beneath the salt flats in the Andean regions of Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, one of the driest regions on Earth. In Chile’s Salar de Atacama, lithium and other mining activities consumed 65 percent of the region’s water, causing groundwater depletion, soil contamination and other forms of environmental degradation, forcing local communities to abandon ancestral settlements.
>Communities resisting the mine in Serbia fear for the mine’s tailings. These are the toxic residues of chemicals, rock and water left over from the mining processes. How tailings are dealt with accounts for many of the major pollution impacts of mining (learn more in London Mining Network’s explainer). The only tailings site publicly announced so far is in Radjevina, which would involve the destruction of 170 hectares of forest. The land is home to many protected species and nearby villages depend on its underground waters.
>In 2014, one hundred thousand cubic metres of tailings from an antimony mine were released into the Kostajnik River (a Jadar tributary) after a record rainfall triggered floods and landslides. The Serbian Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) found elevated levels of arsenic, lead, copper and zinc in local waterways. The government also reported that 360 hectares of soil were affected by heavy metal contamination. The Jadar valley is a floodplain, and after many decades of experience with pollution from mining in their communities, locals fear the new project would spell disaster.
>Chemical leakages from tailings sites can be fatal. In May 2016, masses of dead fish were found in the waters of Tibet’s Liqi River, contaminated by a toxic chemical leak from the Ganzizhou Rongda lithium mine run by Chinese company BYD. Cow and yak carcasses were also found floating downstream after having drunk contaminated water. The Free Tibet campaign produced a report on BYD and the effects of lithium extraction in Tibet.
>A number of toxic heavy metals are also needed as components of lithium batteries for electric cars and other consumer goods. One of these metals is cobalt. An investigation into child labour in Democratic Republic of Congo’s cobalt industry revealed that tens of thousands of children were employed in the mines – two years after the publication of a damning Amnesty Internetional report about human rights abuses in the cobalt trade. There are many health risks associated with cobalt mining, including serious lung disease.
>In Serbia, locals can already see the damage caused by Rio Tinto’s exploratory activities. The Protect Jadar and Rađevina association says the area is riddled with saline aquifiers, some of which will need to be drained to access the mineral. They claim that the many exploratory drill holes made by Rio Tinto have disturbed the underground waters. Grass and vegetation is no longer growing around the holes, and locals fear contamination of their drinking water. A well in the village of Gornje Nedeljice is reportedly no longer safe to drink from.
>Rio Tinto’s Jadar mine also threatens the important cultural heritage of the area. According to Marija Alimpić, more than 50 prehistoric archeological sites lie in the Jadar Valley, including a 3500 year-old necropolis which reportedly stands in the path of a second tailings waste area.
Change the words “Lithium mining company, Rio Tinto” into “chinese lithium mining company”, redditors will suddenly care.
easy reddit karma, come on man.
Decimating our ecological system while simultaneously marketing themselves for green energy.
Hopefully we find a scalable way to extract lithium from seawater.
It’s the same company that blew up aboriginal sites in Austalia.
B-but… electric cars are so green…
​
/s, for less inteligent readers
Who is financing the mine?
> The UK’s Rio Tinto plc holds a 100% interest in the Jadar Project. Rio Tinto is one of the biggest mining companies in the world. It is a ‘public’ company, meaning its shares can be bought and sold on the London Stock Exchange. As a result it has a huge number of shareholders, none of whom owns close to a majority of the company’s shares. The biggest single investor, holding 14% of Rio Tinto shares, is [Chinalco](https://www.chinalco.com.pe/en), a huge aluminium producing company owned by the Chinese state. Market databases show the next biggest shareholders are the giant investment funds Blackrock, Vanguard and Capital, with 11%, 8% and 7% respectively.
Is there anywhere that Rio Tinto isn’t being destructive?
They are also remarkably litigious and for a long while had a superinjunction in the UK that banned reporting on a series of court cases against them and a long series of frivilous lawsuits by them against journalists and activists.
ED Cases that in the US would be called SLAPP.
Pollution and corruption are at an all-time high and people just can’t do anything about it. I love my country and my people but I honestly don’t know what we can do at this point except leave and never look back.
They advertise themselves as they are going to save Serbia with green energy… In reality, Serbia gets destroyed and rich countries get green energy and electric cars…
How nice of Rio Tinto to bring their “international” mining business & practice to Europe as well… They spent so many years to perfect their methods in Bolivia, Australia and Katanga for example, it’s only right we get to see it in Europe as well. I’m sure there’s so much to learn from this company. /s